According to Melua, the inspiration for the song came during a visit to Beijing with her manager Mike Batt.

Adrian Brett, who played the ethnic flutes on Batt's album Caravans (1978), contributed to the song; an ocarina was used for the low sounds, and a Chinese bamboo flute for the high sounds.

The meandering blasts of flute that weave their way throughout lend the song a Chinese feel and make it quite enticing".

[4] The single's music video, directed by Kevin Godley, shows Melua lying on the grass during a picnic in a park with her friends, beforevbeing dragged across the floor through a variety of settings, including a brief shot of the Summer Palace in Beijing, until she returns to the park at the end of the video.

In 2005, Melua was criticised by writer and scientist Simon Singh[5] for inaccurate lyrics referring to the size of the observable universe ("We are 12 billion light-years from the edge.